1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive information distribution system such as a video-on-demand (VOD) system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing subscription-on-demand (SOD) services for such an interactive information distribution system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recent advances in digital signal processing techniques and, in particular, improvements in digital compression techniques, have led to a plethora of proposals for providing new digital services to a customer""s home via existing telephone and coaxial cable networks. For example, it has been proposed to provide hundreds of cable television channels to subscribers by compressing digital data and digital-video, transmitting the compressed digital signals over conventional coaxial cable television channels, and then decompressing the signals in the subscriber""s receiver. Another proposed application for this technology is a video-on-demand (VOD) system in which a subscriber communicates directly with a video service provider via telephone lines to request a video program from a video library and the requested video program is routed to the subscriber""s home via telephone lines or via coaxial cable television cables for immediate viewing. Other proposed VOD systems use a frequency multiplexing technique to enable control information for a subscriber""s receiver to be transmitted through a cable network back to an information server. Such a system permits a bi-directional communications over a single network.
In most of these information distribution systems, graphical menus are displayed upon the subscribers television and using a remote control device, a subscriber selects a desired program for viewing. One such graphical user interface based VOD system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,249, issued Apr. 8, 1997, and hereby incorporated herein by reference, wherein a viewing station including a television monitor and a high-power graphics computer are used to generate a graphical user interface. The viewing stations are in communication with a telecasting facility (i.e., service provider head end equipment) that transmits selected video information as requested by the viewing station. The graphics computer within the viewing station locally stores all the executable programs that generate the graphical interface, control the graphical interface, and interact with the subscriber. The graphics computer not only enables a subscriber to select programming to view, but also enables a non-subscriber to become a subscriber by interacting with certain interface screens.
Although having such a high-power computer within the viewing station is beneficial in providing nearly instantaneous responsiveness to the subscriber""s and non-subscriber""s inputs, such a high-power computer system is economically unfeasible to utilize as subscriber equipment for a large number of subscriber homes. As such, set top terminals or television receivers containing built-in high-power computers are generally not feasible as a commercial product.
Additionally, prior art VOD systems have only contemplated selling services on a program-by-program basis. For example; in the prior art systems, a viewer navigates through various menus to arrive at a menu containing a program title that the subscriber desires to view. The subscriber then requests the program and the program is supplied to the subscriber""s display. The subscriber""s account is then billed for the order of that particular program. As such, the concept of subscriptions extends only to the general access to content and an a la carte purchase of a unit of content. In this respect, the consumer""s experience is nothing more than the transformation of the video store experience to the customer""s home; the consumer is purchasing the ability to access a program for a prescribed period of time. Such systems use the term xe2x80x9csubscriberxe2x80x9d to represent someone who has received an installation of the subscriber equipment to enable a technically different class of service to be accessed, namely, digital or analog/digital services instead of the purely analog telecasts of conventional cable television. Consequently, the xe2x80x9csubscriptionxe2x80x9d as used in the prior art refers to the capability of selecting from a list a single unit of content such as a movie or video. Heretofore, VOD systems have not had a capability of packaging programming at a single price such that a system subscriber can also be a program package subscriber to enable the package subscriber to view any program in the subscribed package without further cost.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for providing subscription-on-demand services for an interactive information distribution system. There is also a need to provide these services using equipment having a significant portion of the computing power is contained within a service provider head end system such that a terminal for the subscriber""s home can be manufactured relatively inexpensively.
The disadvantages heretofore associated with the prior art are overcome by the present invention of a method and apparatus for providing subscription-on-demand (SOD) services for a interactive information distribution system, where the system provides distributed computing resources using a relatively inexpensive subscriber terminal. The invention is embodied in a combination of software, which provides a so-called xe2x80x9cnavigatorxe2x80x9d, and hardware, including subscriber equipment and service provider equipment that is interconnected by a communications network. The graphical user interface functionality is distributed between the service provider equipment and subscriber equipment. Such distribution provides an enjoyable, real time interactive session that allows the consumer to rapidly navigate through a plethora of menus to find particular information which the consumer desires to view. In addition, a non-subscriber of a particular SOD service is quickly identified and provided the opportunity to, through the use of a graphical user interface, subscribe to the programming provided by the system.
Using the inventive equipment, a consumer is capable of further subscribing to packages of on-demand programming, i.e., SOD services, through manipulation of the graphical user interface. The system provides certain packages of on-demand programming, i.e., childrens programming, that a consumer may elect to subscribe to for a single price. As such, through manipulation of the menus, the consumer selects a programming package, becomes a subscriber to that package and is billed accordingly. Thereafter, the subscriber may view any program in the package without additional cost. Although predefined programming packages are generally available for selection, a consumer may optionally create a personal SOD service by selecting programs for a personal package that can then be subscribed to as any other programming package.
Consequently, the invention differs from the prior art from both an architectural standpoint and data management standpoint. Together these innovations provide a complex price and data capacity management infrastructure necessary to offer a consumer friendly approach to subscribing to a class of data or service content. This service content might be grouped by any logical association such as a series of movies or other program content. The SOD service concept of having a single price for a package of programming removes the payment commitment challenge ordinarily posed by the prior art as a barrier to viewing each item of content.